tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post6916867453844625946..comments2017-12-12T14:24:15.796-05:00Comments on Boston 1775: “Which is the side that I must go withal?”J. L. Bellnoreply@blogger.comBlogger1125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-28102666.post-64235253333091661612011-04-15T13:43:08.258-05:002011-04-15T13:43:08.258-05:00The letter from Mrs. Gage&#39;s friend shows that ...The letter from Mrs. Gage&#39;s friend shows that both women (I am assuming the correspondent is a woman) were acutely aware of the horrors of civil war. However, an earlier passage in the letter is also very revealing. The writer says &quot;I have heard some good news, which is that [Patriot General] Montgomery is with his whole army cut to pieces or taken by Genl Carleton [i.e. British General Guy Carleton]. God grant it be true! and yet I shudder...&quot;. Mrs. Gage&#39;s friend is very firmly on the loyalist side - even if she does feel sorry for Montgomery&#39;s widow. More significantly, the writer would not have written in such terms had she not assumed that Mrs. Gage would also share her view that the destruction of a patriot army was &quot;good news&quot;. Clearly, the writer and Mrs. Gage, who were together in Boston at the time of Bunker Hill, would have discussed their views on the war etc. I think, therefore, that this letter is, if anything, evidence that supports the idea that Mrs. Gage was, as you would expect, a loyalist. The anonymous writer of the letter, by the way, was probably a relation or old family friend of Mrs. Gage. The letter is sent from Perth Amboy, where Margaret Kemble Gage grew up and where her father, Peter Kemble, lived.Anonymousnoreply@blogger.com